How to build new habits that actually stick

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” The line is usually credited to the speaker Jim Rohn, and it is a reassuring one. It means that success does not depend on feeling inspired every day. It comes from small actions repeated over a long time, and once those actions become habits, they keep going without much effort from you.

The hard part is getting a new habit off the ground. You have probably tried: exercising more, eating better, revising a little every evening, learning an instrument. And you probably know how it goes. For a few days it works, then you are tired, or busy, or simply not in the mood, and the aspiration quietly disappears before it becomes a habit.

Here we share some practical methods to make a new habit easier to establish and maintain, most of them drawn from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.

How a habit works

James Clear describes four stages that every habit runs through:

1. The cue. Something that triggers the habit: a time, a place, a feeling, something you see.
2. The craving. The want that the cue sets off.
3. The response. The thing you actually do.
4. The reward. What you get out of it, which makes you more likely to do it again next time.

Take a habit most of us already have. Your phone buzzes (the cue). You want to know who it is (the craving). You pick it up and check (the response). You find out, and that little bit of curiosity is satisfied (the reward). Repeat that a few hundred times and you no longer decide to check your phone. You just do.

Building a good habit means using the same four stages on purpose. To start a new habit, you want to make:

• the cue more obvious,
• the craving more attractive,
• the response easier,
• the reward more satisfying.

Easier said than done, of course. The methods below put each one into practice.

1. Stack it on a habit you already have

One of our favourite ways to start a new habit is habit stacking, another idea from Atomic Habits. Instead of trying to remember a new habit out of nowhere, you attach it to something you already do every day. It works like an if-then rule:

After I [something I already do], I will [new habit].

For example:

• After I take off my school shoes, I will put on my running shoes.
• After I eat breakfast, I will sit quietly for one minute.
• After I put my bag down at home, I will take out my homework.
• After I brush my teeth at night, I will read one page of my book.

This works surprisingly well because your old habits are already wired into your brain. You have done them hundreds of times, so they happen reliably. By adding one small step to the end, you borrow that reliability. The old habit becomes the cue for the new one, so you no longer have to remember it.

A good anchor habit is one that happens every day without fail. “After school” is vague, because school ends at different times and you might stay back for an activity. “After I put my bag down at home” is a clear moment you will not miss.

Try this: list a few things you do every day without thinking: waking up, brushing your teeth, eating dinner, getting home. Pick one new habit you want, and write one sentence that starts “After I…”. Keep the new habit small enough that you could do it even on a bad day.

2. Set up your surroundings

Apart from habit stacking, one of the most useful things you can do is change your environment so the habit is easier, or simply harder to forget.

If you want to drink more water, put a large bottle of water on your desk. You will drink from it without having to think about it. If you want to play basketball more, leave the ball by the door, so you see it every time you walk past and can pick it up on your way out.

The same goes for studying:

• Leave the book you are revising from on your desk, not in your bag.
• Keep a stack of flashcards somewhere you sit every day.
• If you want to practise an instrument, leave it out on a stand rather than zipped up in its case.

It works in reverse too. If a habit is one you want to break, make it harder to reach. A phone in another room is much less tempting than one face-up next to your homework. Our note on how to study with 100% focus goes further into setting up a desk for work.

Try this: for the habit you chose above, look at the place where it should happen. What could you put out in plain sight to remind you? And what could you move out of reach so it stops getting in the way?

3. Make it something you want, and feel good about

The other two stages, the craving and the reward, are about how the habit feels.

To make a habit more attractive, pair it with something you already enjoy. James Clear calls this temptation bundling. You might only listen to your favourite podcast while you go for a walk, or only have your favourite snack while you do your Maths practice. The thing you enjoy pulls you towards the thing you are trying to build.

To make the reward more satisfying, give yourself something you can see straight away. Many good habits pay off only in the long run: one evening of revision does not change your grade. So make the progress visible instead. A tick on a calendar, a line in a notebook, a box crossed out in a weekly planner (made for P6, works for anyone). Small as it is, that tick feels good, and you will not want to break the run.

Try this: decide on one small thing you enjoy that you will only allow yourself during your new habit, and one way to mark each day you do it.

4. Keep showing up

None of these tricks make a habit stick on their own. What does is repetition. The more you do the habit, the easier it becomes, until one day you notice you are doing it without having to push yourself.

You will miss a day sometimes. That is normal and does not undo your progress. What matters is getting back to it the next day, so that one missed day does not turn into a missed week.

Be creative about how you fit the habit into your life. The best version of a habit is the one that fits so naturally into your day that it soon becomes second nature.

Start with one

You do not need to change everything at once. Pick one habit. Stack it on something you already do, set up your space so it is easier, make it a little more enjoyable, and keep showing up.

If getting started is still the hard part, our note on atomic habits to trick your brain into doing hard things shares the two-minute rule and why it helps to just get ready. And if your mornings could use a better routine, see five morning habits that cost you the whole day.